Mortal: The Path to Immortality

After completing the permanent residency procedures, Lu Nanzhu and Han Li walked out of the "Ascending Immortal Pavilion" side by side.

Standing on the bluestone platform outside the pavilion, looking at the sea of ​​clouds in the distance, Han Li broke the silence first:

"Junior Brother Lu, I plan to return to the Gu residence first to bring Qu Hun with me, and then head directly to Xiao Huan Island to open a cave for seclusion."

"I also need to settle down in the north of the island. If all goes well, I estimate I'll have to go into seclusion for another ten or eight years."

Lu Nanzhu withdrew his gaze, turned around, and cupped his hands in farewell to Han Li, saying, "In that case, let us part ways here. There will be many days to come, Senior Brother Han, take care."

Han Li looked at Lu Nanzhu and solemnly returned the greeting with clasped hands. Then, without saying anything more, he summoned his magical artifact and flew towards the Gu residence.

After watching him leave from where he stood, Lu Nanzhu turned around and flew north towards the location of "Linghai Peak" on the map.

Meanwhile, inside the main hall of the Dengxian Pavilion.

Watching Lu Nanzhu and his companion completely disappear outside the door, Yang Liansheng finally couldn't suppress his doubts any longer and turned to the red-robed cultivator beside him, saying:

"Fellow Daoist Wang, why are you doing this? Aren't you worried that Fellow Daoist Lu will actually break the formation? If that happens, you'll have to spend a lot of spirit stones for him for no reason."

"I didn't beg him to go; he insisted on trying it himself."

"Besides, this array formation is incredibly complex; it's not something you can learn so easily." The red-coated cultivator curled his lip in impatience.

He picked up his teacup again, took a sip, and then sneered.

"If you ask me, this guy surnamed Lu might not actually go to 'Linghaifeng' to invite bad luck."

Most likely, when he arrived at the destination and realized something was wrong, he simply found a remote island and went into seclusion to cultivate.

"Alas, Fellow Daoist Lu is new here and has no idea of ​​the mysteries of that formation."

Yang Liansheng sighed, his face still showing some worry.

Previously, several of us had tried to break the formation together, but we failed. Old Li was even seriously injured by the formation's backlash when he tried to force his way through its restrictions; he hasn't fully recovered yet.

"It's alright, no one will die anyway." The red-coated cultivator said, slamming his teacup back onto the table with a dull thud.

"This man is nothing more than a rogue cultivator from overseas, yet he thinks too highly of himself. Now is the perfect opportunity to dampen his arrogance."

......

An hour later, on the north shore of Kui Xing Island.

Lu Nanzhu traversed most of the Qingyun Mountains and arrived at the northernmost end of the mountain range.

This place was rarely visited by people, and Lu Nanzhu finally found the location of "Linghai Peak".

The mountain peak faces the sea to the north, where surging waves constantly crash against a precipice, creating a continuous roar.

Above the mountain peak, a faint array of restrictions was shrouded in mist, with a subtle flow of spiritual light emanating from it.

Lu Nanzhu landed on an open space, released his divine sense, and tentatively unleashed several needle-like beams of spiritual light to pierce the restriction.

The moment the inspiration touched the restriction, it was immediately deflected.

Through his divine sense, he discovered that although the protective spiritual energy of the barrier was somewhat depleted after the attack, it was quickly replenished by drawing spiritual energy from deep underground, continuously.

"That's quite a formidable defensive formation," Lu Nanzhu muttered to himself, looking at the light screen before him.

"If we just resort to brute force, the stronger the attack, the stronger the counterattack from the formation will be."

Previously, he had studied the array formation books given to him by Xin Ruyin, which contained similar array formation records.

To break this type of formation, one must first identify the source of the formation's spiritual energy supply. Only by blocking the supply of spiritual energy and simultaneously attacking the restrictions can the formation be effective.

Lu Nanzhu patted the spirit beast pouch at his waist, released "Mancang", and then followed it all the way down into the depths of the earth.

With "Mancang's" keen sense of spiritual energy, Lu Nanzhu successfully found a spiritual eye of that spiritual vein underground.

However, this spiritual vein is quite large, and with the "Spirit-Severing Array" he currently possesses and his current level of magical power, he simply cannot forcibly cut off the cave's array from extracting spiritual energy.

Judging from the flow of this spiritual vein, even a Core Formation cultivator would have to put in a lot of effort to break this formation.

"The person who designed this formation certainly had some ingenuity." Lu Nanzhu returned to the ground, looked at the mountain peak in front of him, and felt a little troubled.

He paced back and forth at the foot of the mountain, pondering a way to break the formation. Suddenly, he stopped, clapped his hands, and said:

"That's right! Since this formation can be maintained by drawing upon the spiritual energy of the spiritual veins, why can't I use that energy against them!?"

The slap came so suddenly that "Mancang" jumped up and darted back into the spirit beast pouch.

Lu Nanzhu immediately sat down cross-legged, took out the "Spirit-Severing Array" array-setting tool he carried with him, and began to modify several array patterns to make it able to withstand the input of spiritual energy at the level of spiritual veins.

The "Spirit-Severing Array" is also an array recorded in the book given by Xin Ruyin. It can completely isolate spiritual energy, but it will not hinder a cultivator's spiritual sense from probing spiritual energy.

Half an hour later, the modification and debugging of the formation were completed.

Lu Nanzhu patted the spirit beast bag, releasing a swarm of "Spirit-Eating Bees" that remained on the ground. Then, carrying the modified array plate, he returned to the underground spirit eye once again.

He slowly activated the incantation, placing the array plate on the spiritual vein, and then directly connected the spiritual energy source of the array to the spiritual eye here.

The "Spirit-Severing Array" absorbed a large amount of spiritual energy from the spiritual veins, and its spiritual light shone brightly. The isolation barrier spread rapidly towards the direction of Listening Sea Peak, cutting off the transmission of spiritual energy between that cave and the underground spiritual veins layer by layer.

Having lost the source of spiritual energy, the mountain peaks lost all their spiritual energy, and the array formations and restrictions on them began to dim as they were depleted and could not be replenished.

The "Erosion Bees" guarding the ground sensed the divine guidance from Lu Nanzhu and quickly gathered into three groups, attacking the cave's restrictions from three different directions with all their might.

Relying on their instinct to devour spiritual energy, the "Spirit-Eating Bees" quickly gnawed several large holes in the light screen, which had already lost most of its spiritual power supply.

The unbalanced formation collapsed instantly, and the flowing light scattered everywhere.

Seeing that the formation was broken, Lu Nanzhu, who was underground, immediately withdrew the "Spirit-Severing Formation" and returned to the surface.

The commotion from breaking the formation was considerable. He then released his divine sense to look around and confirmed that there was no one else there.

He put all the Spirit-Eating Bees into his spirit beast pouch, then leaped up and flew straight toward the cave that had revealed its true form.

Upon entering the cave, Lu Nanzhu activated his full divine sense and simultaneously released "Spirit-Eating Bees" to surround himself, guarding against any traps or ambushes that might exist there.

The cave dwelling here is very large, nearly three times larger than the cave dwelling he previously created in the Abandoned Spirit Valley. However, the furnishings inside are rather simple, with only a few stone tables and chairs and not many other items.

Lu Nanzhu walked around the hall and then came to the stone table in the mansion. On the table were some unfinished array plates and several open books.

He raised his hand and cast a "Dust-Avoiding Spell" to clear the dust from the cave. Then he picked up the books and began to read them with great interest.

After flipping through the books for a while, he discovered that they contained the insights and experiences of the original owner of the cave when he studied formations. They also contained detailed records of some novel formations that had never been heard of before in Tiannan.

"This person's mastery of formations is profound; he is truly a genius."

Lu Nanzhu nodded slightly as he looked at the deductions on the pages of the book.

He then closed the book, put it away, and muttered to himself:

"However, the fact that his research into array formations yielded results that benefited later generations like me is truly a stroke of luck."

For safety reasons, Lu Nanzhu then left the cave and set up a "Reversed Five Elements Formation" around the mountain peak.

Upon returning to the mansion, just in case, he deployed all the "Thousand Machine Suspended Thread Arrays" he had made, along with dozens of mechanical puppets, in various key locations.

Slightly relieved, he then began to clean up the things left behind by the original owner of the cave.

The cleaning process went smoothly. Apart from some common pills and a few books, there were no other valuable items in the cave.

And so, Lu Nanzhu successfully moved into "Linghai Peak".